Salvation Boulevard by Larry Beinhart

Author:Larry Beinhart [Beinhart, Larry]
Language: ita
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9781568584324
Publisher: Nation Books
Published: 2008-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

35

“Dad, Dad, what are you doing?” Angie said.

I was overreacting, being cowboy stupid, with Angie in the car. I could have found out that we were being followed without the drama. So what if someone was following me? What would they find out? That I was taking my daughter to a doctor’s office and dropping in at a big downtown law firm?

“You want an ice cream?” I asked, like I’d pulled off with a reason.

It was pretty thin, but she said, “Sure.”

I looked around. It was one of those nowhere exits for development that would surely come. Probably built because someone politically connected owned the surrounding acres. But so far, it didn’t even have a gas station and convenience store. There were some signs up, one to an industrial area—refineries we could see in the distance—and I knew that there was a development a couple of miles behind, but I didn’t want to double back. If we’d kept going toward the city, the next exit would’ve been eight miles ahead, Kavanaugh Golf Club Estates, a very expensive subdivision built around one of our more exclusive golf clubs, with the river running through it. If the road in front of us stayed roughly parallel with the highway, that’s where we’d end up, and there was a high-end mall with a Häagen-Dazs and a Godiva Chocolates and other nice places for treats, so I turned left.

The Explorer was almost up to us, and when we turned, it followed.

The road started veering to the west, away from the main road, into the choppy scrubland, clumps of salt grass and scattered ephedra in the stony, sandy soil.

“Do you know where you’re going?” Angie asked.

“I’m kinda guessing,” I said.

“Mmm,” she said.

“Mmm, yourself.”

A mile later, the Explorer still behind me, the paving ended, and we were on a sandy track. The area is full of them. Lots and lots of nothing in front of us, and more nothing on either side of us, and Angie asked, “Are you lost?”

“Well, yeah, sort of,” I said. “Don’t tell Mom.”

“I won’t.”

I glanced up in the rearview, thinking that maybe I should turn around. The Explorer was no longer hanging back and keeping a tail. It was coming up fast, very fast. In a moment it was practically on my bumper, and then it pulled to the left, like it was going to pass me. I wondered what they were up to, if they would flag me down or cut me off.

As it came up alongside, I looked over, and the passenger-side window was sliding down. I saw one of the two guys that I’d seen in the prison when we’d met with Ahmad. The one with thin hair and acne pits. He was looking back at me. And then I saw the gun come up. I reflexively reached out for Angie and shoved her down and stomped my foot on the brake at the same time. They zoomed past.

I turned hard right, off the road, into the scrub and the sand.

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